I'm Not Who I Used To Be || G. Sanders

BOOM

She swings her arms around his neck jumping into his arms. Even at thirty-four, he's able to carry her weight just like during her school days. Wetting his shoulder she cries holding a death grip on Sirius.

"Am I missing something?"

Sirius and Rose didn't budge at Brass' question. Instead, Sirius only held her tighter.

"I don't want to let go," she whispers to him.

He rubs his hand up and down her back soothingly. "You don't have to. I got you, pup."

Her body relaxed at the nickname. This moment... this moment she knows this is all real. He's here, he's with her. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, love."

She releases her legs from his waist silently asking him to put her down which he does. She turned to Brass wiping the tears with the pads of her thumb. "Brass," she looks briefly to Harry, and he nods, "this is Sirius Black, my godfather, and uncle."

A smirk makes its way to Brass' face, not an expression you see often. He extends his hand to Sirius. Sirius cautiously takes his hand giving a firm handshake. "Well, family to Rose is friends to us. Rose-"

"Don't worry I'll keep them tamed. Come on, I have a lot of work to do. We'll talk in my lab."

The two men follow Rose toward her lab. Rose holds Sirius' hand as they walk.

They come to her lab ignoring the odd stares from her coworkers in the hall. She tosses them each a lab coat and safety glasses.

"What exactly is all this?" Sirius asks looking around the lab.

"This," she waves a hand around the room. "Here in Sin City, it's not at all like Hogwarts. No, here we don't use magic we use our skill sets to solve cases. My team assists of nine members excluding myself. We are CSIs; Crime Scene Investigators. I'll introduce them to you later. We solve crimes, investigate murders, suicides, natural causes, and even the most terrifying... serial killers. We find the evidence, analyze it, and use it to catch these assclowns." She looks up creasing her brow. "Oh God, I've been talking to Rossi too much."

"Rossi?"

Harry chuckles and Rose smiles. She picks up a gun checks the ammunition then pops it back in. She chooses not to respond and instead hands them each a pair of earmuffs.

"What is that? What are you doing?"

"Oh, this?" She holds the gun up, "American weaponry, we call it a gun. This is specifically a Glock 19, a standard service weapon for the local police. Here at the LVPD lab, I am the ballistics expert. Now, fire in the hole!"

She took a shot off into her little dummy. The shot rang out making Sirius jump. Rose spins around taking in Sirius' shocked expression. She giggles as she pulls the protected case off and digs out the bullet.

"Now," she huffs, snatching the earmuffs from their heads and bringing them closer. She puts the bullet from the scene under the microscope and onto the monitor. Beside it, she pulls up her recently shot bullet. She tugs Sirius by the sleeve bringing him to her side. She peers down looking at the etch marks and smiles. "Look at them, what do you see?"

Sirius follows her directions and peers down. "They're similar."

As he pulls back she leans against the table crossing her arms. "Harry, can you point out the similarities?"

He adjusts his glasses looking at the monitor. "The markings match indicating they're the same bullet."

"Brilliant! What about the differences?"